‘Tim’s Vermeer’: Duplicating a Masterwork

(L–R) Penn Jillette, Tim Jenison, and Teller, in “Tim’s Vermeer.” Sony Pictures Classics

PG-13 | 1h 20m | Documentary, Art History | 2014

It’s not often when art, science, and sleight-of-hand cross paths in a documentary film, and when you find out the premise behind “Tim’s Vermeer,” your first reaction might be a gaping yawn. But once the particulars and participants are introduced, you’ll do an about-face and say, “Wow, that’s way too cool.”

The “Tim” in the title is Tim Jenison, the founder of NewTek, a company that designs cutting-edge software for a multitude of entertainment mediums. Before the story starts in earnest, the filmmakers take about five minutes listing Mr. Jenison’s inventions and past accomplishments, and they are the feats of an extremely talented man with an unquenchable inquisitiveness.

Tim Jenison works at staging the set for his painting. Sony Classics Pictures

Like many an art fan, Mr. Jenison has held a lifelong fascination with the lifelike paintings that emerged from the Baroque and Dutch Golden Age periods and, in particular, artist Johannes Vermeer. Known mostly for the painting “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” Vermeer produced a relatively small number of works (34 verified) in his lifetime, and if you take a look at them, you can see why. So detailed and meticulous are they that, from a distance or to the untrained eye, they look like retouched photographs—a point not lost on Mr. Jenison.

The Hockney-Falco Thesis

After some initial investigating, Mr. Jenison became very familiar with the Hockney-Falco thesis and its various offshoot theories, which attribute the “perfectness” of composition found in works of the era in part to cameras, mirrors, and other forms of optic enhancement. Considering that this was at least 200 years before the invention of what we know to be a camera, this is a very interesting and, some may say, inflammatory type of conclusion.

Penn Jillette (L) observes Tim Jenison working in the way that Vermeer worked. Sony Classics Pictures

No strangers themselves to the art of making things appear as they are not, the magic team of Penn Jillette and a man who goes by the mononym Teller decided to chronicle Mr. Jenison’s five-year quest to employ some of the artists’ instruments that were available at the time to Vermeer and his contemporaries. They documented how Mr. Jenison created a copy of “The Music Lesson,” aka “A Lady at the Virginals With a Gentleman,” which currently hangs in Buckingham Palace.

Co-produced and narrated by Mr. Jillette who co-wrote the screenplay with director Mr. Teller, “Tim’s Vermeer” is not the kind of a movie that should create a crackling air of suspense, but yet it does so splendidly.

An Expensive Experiment

Liquidating a huge chunk of his considerable fortune in the process, Mr. Jenison went to painstaking detail in the creation of a duplicate life-sized set, mixed his own oil paints from scratch, and with one exception never used anything that wasn’t around 400 years ago. That exception? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out, but it won’t be giving anything away to reveal that Mr. Jenison also created it from scratch.

Tim Jenison checks to see if everything is correct in his set of Vermeer's painting. Sony Classics Pictures

For much of the second half of the film, Mr. Jenison and the audience literally “watch paint dry,” but don’t get the idea that it is in any way dull or tedious. If you’ve ever witnessed a Penn & Teller show, you’re already keenly aware that the set-ups to their tricks can often be thunderously mundane and simple, which of course makes the final reveal all that more astonishing.

One thing that Mr. Jenison, the filmmakers, and the interviewed art historians never do is call into question Vermeer’s talent or dedication to his craft. They’re not trying to dismiss or dunk on the man, or label him as a cheat as such, but more as a creative man looking for a way to bring his artistic vision to life.

Don’t Pass Judgment

One of the many great aspects of the movie, and also the cardinal rule for all documentary films, is to not pass judgment on the subject at hand. On that level, Teller succeeds admirably. The process that Vermeer might have used should not take anything away from what he achieved, and that goes for Mr. Jenison as well.

Director Teller takes a closer look at Tim Jenison's work. Sony Classics Pictures

“Tim’s Vermeer” is “The Da Vinci Code” minus all of the abject religious hyperbole and superfluous flummery, but with more authentic and organic drama. It’s a movie for people who like to get into the heads of complicated, creative people, and figure out what makes them tick. In their own very different ways, Vermeer and Mr. Jenison are two guys cut from the same artistic and creative cloth, albeit four centuries apart.

Poster for "Tim's Vermeer." Sony Classics Pictures

The film is available on home video and to stream on Vudu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV+.

‘Tim’s Vermeer’ Documentary Director: Teller Running Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes MPAA Rating: PG-13 Release Date: Jan. 31, 2014 Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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